Usergroups

Not to be confused with WolfQuest Wiki:Staff or Category:Usergroups.Usergroups define members of the WolfQuest community forums. There are several different groups, each with their own unique permissions, ranks and members. Most groups cannot be joined without an administrator's invitation, while others are freely open and can be joined without approval.

The usergroup legend.

Contents

Group memberships

Memberships can be used to distinguish roles of users in the form of a group-unique avatar, rank or color. This may also be accompanied by changes in permissions and configuration. All usergroups possess membership access types — most of which are determined by the board administrator or group leaders if any have been defined. This setting ultimately determine whether or not a usergroup appears in the legend (only when configured to do so) and affects visibility both in the edit memberships tab of the Usergroups module of the User Control Panel and on a user's profile in the groups dropdown menu.

Freely open groups are visible to and joinable by all members. Joining is instantaneous.

Open groups are visible to everyone, but can only be joined via request; these are manually reviewed and handled by group leaders or the board administrator.

Closed groups are visible to everyone, but can only be joined via invitation of a group leader or the board administrator.

Hidden groups are invisible to all but their members even when set as the default group. Colors, ranks and avatars will still be inherited and displayed to everyone, though the usergroup's page cannot be viewed by non-members even though URL manipulation. Attempts to do so will always return the requested usergroup does not exist error page.

Special groups are predefined groups automatically created by and initially preconfigured as part of the forum software. These are generally visible to everyone, but joining is limited to the invitation of a group leader or the board administrator.

To join a usergroup, go to the Usergroups module of the User Control Panel. Only those marked as "freely open" can be joined without being designated by the board administrators or group leaders. Those marked as "open" are application groups, with membership controlled by the board administrators and group leaders. Lastly, groups marked as "closed" or "special" can only be managed by board administrators.

Any group can be defined as a default in order to inherit its rank, color and avatar if defined. Setting group defaults is not mandatory where forum access is granted, nor is it required to set a group default in order to unlock additional permissions. In both cases, these are passive.

Staff Usergroups

Like most forums, WolfQuest's community has three defined staff groups.

WolfQuest Team Members

WolfQuest Team Members are easily recognisable by their cadet blue usernames and WolfQuest Team Member rank. It is not possible to join this closed usergroup without being an employee of Minnesota Zoo or Eduweb.

Administrators

Administrators are easily recognisable by their red usernames. Their rank will be displayed either as WolfQuest Team Member if that member is directly involved with the WolfQuest Team, or WolfQuest Administrator if their role is voluntary/limited to the community forums.[1]

It is very rare for volunteers (so far only current or former moderators) to be taken into consideration as candidates for membership in this usergroup. This is a special predefined usergroup managed solely by the WolfQuest Team.

Global Moderators

Global moderators are easily recognisable by their green usernames and the WolfQuest Moderator rank[2]. Periodically, moderator applications become available and allow members to apply for the position of Global moderator, though this is only done if there is a great need for more modlets either due to low moderator activity, or resignations/demotions.

All current moderators share access to dedicated private forums suitable to the needs of their duties. This is a special predefined usergroup - invitations are only distributed by the WolfQuest Team.

Non-staff Usergroups

The remainder of the community consists of members who are neither classed as staff nor employees of the team.

Beta Testers

Beta Testers consist of staff and non-staff members of the WolfQuest community. These members assist with the testing of new versions of the game before they are publicly released, hence the name. They have no unique usergroup color and no unique rank. In the past, they were represented by pink names; it is unclear why this was changed. This is a closed group - invitations are only distributed by the WolfQuest Team.

Members who are beta testers are not permitted to share the beta build of WolfQuest. Doing so terminates their position as a beta tester. Various testers help root out potential bugs and glitches before the game is publicly released.

Registered Users

Example of a Registered User's post.

Registered Users is the default registered group people are placed in after registering if they are 13 or older. Members who are younger than 13 are instead assigned to the Registered COPPA Users group. All new accounts created as of November 2012 are added to the Newly Registered Users group, meaning posts require moderator approval before appearing publicly visible to other members. After at least one post that increments the user's post counter has been approved, the member loses newly-registered status. These three groups all share the same usergroup color, dark goldenrod.

Because there are over 800,000 registered accounts, it's not feasible to post all accounts ever created here! However, you can easily sift and search though pages upon pages of registered accounts on WolfQuest's own memberlist.

Image Tags

A closed group operated and maintained by WolfQuest community moderators, the Image Tags usergroup was created in January 2015 to grant the community the ability to post images albeit in a moderated group setting with Dave's approval. It has no special rank or color; users do not need to assign it as their default group due to it having a passive effect regardless of the user's defined primary usergroup. Anyone in this usergroup can post images to specific forums without being limited to post approval[3] in WolfQuest-related sections.

Group leaders reserve the right to remove members if they post content that does not comply with the Forum Guidelines. Thanks to the group setting, this penalty only applies to the individual. In this way, it does not ruin the experience for anyone else other than problem users.

To join the group, there is the requirement of having a registered account for at least one month and having posted actively enough on the forums to be considered. Joining the group will send a request to the leaders, who will then approve or deny the request according to these eligibility guidelines.

Senior Members

Example of a Senior Member's post.

Senior Members are long-running or well-established members of the WolfQuest community forums, whose usernames are adorned in silver/platinum to imply both age and experience within the community, however this can be viewed subjectively.

Joining this group requires 1,000 fair posts and having been a member of the community for at least a year based on account age. All applicants are reviewed by the group's leaders and approved or rejected according to these requirements.

User of the Month

User of the Month is a monthly 'reward' formerly run by Michelle and Cana, currently run by the volunteer administrator(s) and assisted by moderators, where a member is granted a yellow username, User of the Month rank and special avatar to thank them for their contribution and good or positive behavior. Candidates are discussed and chosen by the community team, with new qualifying members being granted the title at the beginning of the month.

The first batch ran from the beginning of 2008 until August 2013. The second batch was officially reinstated at the beginning of February 2015. As of the revival, moderators can no longer be granted the title.

Former Users of the Month

Example of a Former User of the Month's post.

Former Users of the Month is a subsidiary group of User of the Month that was added on July 24th 2017 due to the decline in potential User of the Month candidates. They are distinguished by their blue names. As as implied, this group is closed and only previous User of the Month candidates may be granted entry so that those from past months and years can opt to wear the blue name, albeit with a different colour and a modified rank title and badge.

Scavenger Hunters

Scavenger Hunters is a usergroup that was created on May 11th 2018 as part of the Forum Games thread of the same name. Membership must be earned by solving various riddles, typically linked to a certain theme or subject of the community's choosing or from staff's choice if no suitable themes have been submitted. Rounds run for one whole month.

This group is uncommonly given a color to match its theme, however badges are not guaranteed due to them needing to be manually colored and submitted for upload. Membership to this group provides access to a group-exclusive forum.

Retired

The following usergroups have been retired and are no longer open for recruitment, thus it is not possible for users to join them. Some retired groups may still exist for the sole purpose of recognition to distinguish its members.

WolfQuest Report Team

WolfQuest Report Team members are distinguished by their deep sky blue usernames and the WolfQuest Report Team Member rank[4]. This team was founded in June 25th 2011 by Cana and disbanded on December 3rd 2015 following the removal of lexicon chat in 2.5.

Members of this group would frequently patrol multiplayer and report games that breach the multiplayer rules. New members were invited if their reports showed consistent quality over quantity and included valid screenshots that could be used as evidence. As of December 2012, no new Report Team members were sought due to staff, management and project changes. As of November 2015, all former Report Team members were reinstated into the group and its rank was then changed to WQ Report Team Retiree.

All Report Team members shared access to a dedicated private/hidden forum for their reporting and discussion needs. This forum was locked some time after its retirement.

Newbie Teacher Program

Example of a Newbie Teacher's post.

Members of the Newbie Teacher Program usergroup were actually teachers in the program; students gain no membership to the group unless they graduate and apply as a teacher themselves. These users focused on teaching new members (commonly referred to as "newbies" in most communities) about the game, community forums or both, depending on their specialist areas.

The program itself has changed hands numerous times. It was originally founded by wowee333, then passed over to -Larka-, Alpha Female, Boltk9 and ZeRivet. It is currently under the leadership of CaffeineCollie.

On June 14th 2017, the usergroup for the Newbie Teacher Program was removed due to declining interest and activity within the program.

Celebrating # years of WQ

Celebrating 10 years of WQ was introduced at the beginning of July 2012 to celebrate WolfQuest's five year anniversary.[5] In celebration of ten years, it was again updated with a new polled color and more avatars submitted by the community were added to the gallery.[6] Members with Celebrating # years of WQ set as their default are very easily identifiable by their lavender usernames and WQ Veteran ranks.

Prior to late July 2017, the usergroup's color (and rank badge) was originally orange. As of July 26th 2018, the group has been closed and all of its members purged. It will return for each five-year milestone.[7]

This group is freely open and can be joined without approval of an assigned group leader. When available, this group can be joined via the User Control Panel. This group also has a selection of avatars in the avatar gallery which can be accessed in the User Control Panel's edit avatar page, then clicking "Gallery avatars". All images in the gallery are free-use.

Non-memberships

The following groups cannot be joined whatsoever.

Ban Parrot

Example of a post by the Ban Parrot.

Ban Parrot is a joke[8] usergroup complete with its own account that started between Cana and the moderators. It is the only group with a vibrant violet username, unique comedic rank and one sole member. Though it was a member of the Global moderators usergroup up until summer 2017, the account itself serves only as a running gag and comic relief. It is not counted as a moderator and does not conform to the moderator expectations, much in the same way as employees of the WolfQuest Team.

Ban parrot was previously an aesthetic unused account. During early January 2015, it made its first post in the General Discussion topic. In a silent update during 2017, the ban parrot is no longer a member of the moderator usergroup.[citation needed]

Guests

Example of a guest post.

This is the default group people are identified as if they haven't registered and logged in. Guests have no name color, rank and cannot participate in topics, nor can they send or receive private messages. They can read all guest-accessible forums but have no access to any private/hidden sections.

When an account is deleted and its posts are retained, they are handled by the 'Anonymous' account, used as a surrogate account for all deleted accounts' remaining posts.[9] This is a default to the forum software. By technicality, this means Anonymous has the highest possible post count[10]. This is a special group. Members cannot join it.

Bots

Example of a bot post.

Bots generally consist of web crawlers operated by companies, often those owned by search engines or other such services. For example, by Googling WolfQuest, it appears in the top few results on the first page. In general, crawlers and bots are search engines and some archiving services.

Bots are easily distinguishable by their amethyst smoke colored usernames. They have no registered accounts and therefore no profile, so their usernames cannot be clicked. This is the main difference between a bot and a registered account. This is a special group. Members cannot join it.

Trivia

On 1st April 2011, moderators' green names were switched to the yellow associated with the User of the Month. Registered Users had the green name for the day, minus the powers and responsibilities. Administrators obtained the gold colour associated with Registered Users and the User of the Month had the red name for the day, minus the powers and responsibilities. On 2nd April, the change was reverted, though the prank ultimately bit Cana when it unexpectedly failed to revert all users' names back to gold. Combined with server lag, the action could have timed-out, leaving several accounts with green names after the prank. This was resolved within days of the prank thanks to the combined efforts of the community team and a few users who helped Cana fix it completely.

On 1st April 2015, a similar prank resurfaced. Check the Moderators#Trivia and User of the Month#Trivia pages for more information. A "Stick Council" usergroup[11] was created for members of the "Stick Cult", run by a very well-known member of the WolfQuest community with several of WolfQuest's own moderators as its members. All its members gained a pink username and a rank unique to the group itself. This group was kept for one week and was hidden once the event concluded. It was later modified to become another usergroup.[citation needed] A Were Wabbits usergroup was created for non-Stick Cult members and non-moderators.

The Anonymous account's UID is 1. However, the account does not have a viewable profile due to it being a Guest surrogate so you will always be greeted with a non-existent account message. Its UID can only be seen by the webmaster in the database, and management of the account is fully possible. Moderators may also assign anon as a post author. Its post count is only viewable in private messages - this in turn only being visible where a member has requested that their account is deleted as long as you still have a PM sent from a deleted account.

As of 23rd April 2015, most ranks now have a graphical badge associated with them. A second wave was added on the 11th July 2015.[12]

2017 marks the last year of operation for the anniversary usergroup; it will close after July 2018.

As of User of the Month batch 2, the group was recolored after a range of colors were polled to (after being suggested by) and chosen by the community. With its revival, User of the Month was given this color. As of August 19th 2018, User of the Month reverted to yellow. This does not affect Former Users of the Month, who keep Azure Radiance to further distinguish between current and former members.